Windows of Gold

The Windows of Gold
Author: Helen Steiner Rice

There is a legend that has often been told Of the boy who searched for the Windows of Gold. The beautiful windows he saw far away When he looked in the valley at sunrise each day.

And he yearned to go down to the valley below But he lived on a mountain covered with snow,
And he knew it would be a difficult trek, But that was a journey he wanted to make.

So he planned by day and he dreamed by night Of how he could reach The Great Shining Light.
And one golden morning when dawn broke through And the valley sparkled with diamonds of dew.

He started to climb down the mountainside With the Windows of Gold as his goal and his guide.
He traveled all day and, weary and worn, With bleeding feet and clothes that were torn.

He entered the peaceful valley town Just as the Golden Sun went down.
But he seemed to have lost his Guiding Light, The windows were dark that had once been bright.

And hungry and tired and lonely and cold He cried, "Won't you show me the Windows of Gold?"
And a kind hand touched him and said, "Behold! High on the mountain are the Windows of Gold."

For the sun going down in a great golden ball Had burnished the windows of his cabin so small,
And the Kingdom of God with its great shining light, Like the golden windows that shone so bright.

Is not a far distant place, somewhere, It's as close to you as a silent prayer,
And your search for God will end and begin When you look for Him and find Him within.


Windows of Gold
My mother's favorite story was called "Windows of Gold." She told it to me many times while I was a child. But there is another side of the story, as told by a man in the valley.

It begins in a small village, nestled in a valley, where a young man is dissatisfied with his mundane existence in the sleepy town. But every evening, after his work in the fields is done, he looks up to the mountain where another town clung to the cliffs. He was always transfixed, for every window in that magical, far-off berg had windows of gold.
All of his life, he had yearned to make the arduous journey up from the valley to that wonderful place, and to see the windows of gold for himself. One morning, he could stand his ordinary life no more, dropped his plow, and set off to climb the mountain.
It took him all day to make the ascent. At times he was tempted to give up and return to the safety of his home. But as the afternoon wore on, his eye caught reflections of those windows of gold, and he found the strength to continue.
The lad finally reached his destination just as the last rays of the sun were fading below the horizon behind him. And there were the windows of gold! But what was this? No sooner had he finally seen his tantalizing goal up close but their spectacular color was ebbing away.
And as the sun finally set, he realized: these were just ordinary windows, the same as those in his own village. They were simply reflecting the afternoon sun when seen from down in the valley.
Dejected, he fell into a troubled sleep.
The following morning, he awoke, and turned to make the long journey back. But he stopped in his track in disbelief. There, down in the valley, in his own town, every home had windows of gold - reflections from the rising sun. With renewed strength and a smile born of understanding and peace of heart, he cheerfully set about his descent down to his home and its windows of gold.
I always liked this story because it has a happy ending. The similar concepts of "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence," or the story of the dog who drops his bone to grab at the one reflecting in the pond, both end in personal loss. Whereas "Windows of Gold" is more like the Wizard of Oz in which Dorothy comes to realize that she had actually always possessed that which she had left home to find, and happily returns home to embrace it.